The worldwide network of computers, commonly known as the "Internet," has seen explosive growth in the last several years. This growth has been typically fueled by the introduction and widespread use of "web" browsers that allow for simple graphical user interface-based access to network servers. Such network servers typically support documents formatted as "web pages." The "World Wide Web" (www) is a collection of servers on the Internet that utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known application protocol that provides users access to files using a standard page description language referred to as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It should be noted that files may be provided in different formats such as text, graphics, images, sound, and video, among others. HTML provides basic document formatting and allows a developer to specify "links" to other servers and files. Use of an HTML-compliant client browser involves specification of a link via a Uniform Resource Locator, commonly known by the acronym, "URL." Upon specification of a URL, a client may make a TCP/IP request to the server identified in the link and receive a "web page" in return, where the "web page" is a document formatted according to HTML.
FIG. 1 illustrates a communication network based on a client-server model typically utilized in the Internet. Conceptually, the Internet comprises a large network of "sites" 110 that are accessible by "clients" 112. Each of the plurality of clients 112 is typically a user of a personal computer. Clients 112 may access the Internet through some private Internet access provider 114 (such as Internet America.TM.) or an on-line service provider 116 (such as America On-Line.TM., Prodigy.TM., Microsoft Network.TM., and the like). Alternatively, a client 112 may have a direct connection (not illustrated) to sites 110. Access provider 114, service provider 116, and any direct connection (not illustrated) will hereinafter be collectively referred to as the web servers. Each of the clients 112 may run a "browser," which is a known software tool used to access the sites 110 via the web servers (114 and 116). Each site 110 may selectively operate one or more "web sites" or servers that support files in the form of documents and pages. A network path to a server is identified by a uniform resource locator (URL) having a known syntax for defining a network connection. As previously mentioned, URLs may be utilized to specify a link from the user to another server or file. Upon specification of a link, one of the clients 112 makes a TCP/IP request to one of the plurality of sites 110 identified in the link and receives a web page (specifically, a document formatted according to HTML) in return.
In addition to HTML, web servers (114, 116) may access programs other than HTML from a web site 110. In this role, the web servers are acting more like clients, than typical servers. Rather, in some instances, the web server (114, 116) accesses information written in a programming language referred to as JavaScript. JavaScript is a programming language that is often used in Internet applications as it provides a more flexible method for interfacing with browsers used by clients 112. When site 110 provides information in JavaScript to the web server (114, 116), the web server (114, 116) interprets the JavaScript to generate instructions that form a web page. The web server (114, 116) then sends the formatted web page to the browser used by client 112. To client 112, the web page appears as though it was retrieved from a web site 110.
As users of the Internet have grown more sophisticated, these users are demanding more dynamic interaction with web sites and no longer want merely static lists of impersonal information. For this reason, use of JavaScript by web sites has become more common as JavaScript provides such interactive capabilities. With the increased use of JavaScript, the inadequacies of that programming language have become increasingly noticeable. Specifically, JavaScript is a sparse programming language that fails to include many of the functions implemented in other programming languages, such as "C". For instance, C and even older programming languages such as COBOL, implement an "include" function. An include function identifies a set of instructions that are executed in more than one program, and allows these instructions to be "included" in the body of each program without having to be recoded.
Stated another way, include functions provide a shorthand method for implementing operating groups of instructions. Therefore, instead of programming each of the programs with this set of instructions, the instructions are placed in a file and the instructions in the file are then executed when an include function is executed and services the file. For this reason, such include files are particularly useful in defining the value of constants utilized during program execution. For more information on the include function implemented by the "C" programming language, refer to C; A Reference Manual, by Harbison, et al., published by Prentice Hall, 1991, pp. 43-45. As previously mentioned, JavaScript is a sparse programming language that fails to perform an include function and, thus, traditional programming implementations that require sets of instructions must provide separate coding for those instructions in a tedious and time consuming manner.
While such include files are useful and often used during programming operations, JavaScript fails to include a similar type function in its programming capabilities. Therefore, a need exists for a method and data processing system that allow a programmer to include repeated sections of programming code in an efficient and easily-usable manner.